Today was my first run since 23 May, when I sustained a knee injury. I have now been off running for 7 weeks and am starting a very gentle program to build up again

Started today with 2km, running 100m then walking 100m, now I have a day off and will run again on Saturday, doing 100m run walk for 2.5k, extending by 500m each day until I reach 5km.

When I have got to 5k run/walk, will switch to 200m run 100m walk, extending the run by 100m every other day, until I am doing 500m run 100m walk, then will switch to 5km run

So in around 2.5 weeks I will be running 5km. After this I will extend by 1k every other day until I reach 10k, so now looking 4 weeks out. When I am at 10k I will work on increasing my pace gradually over 2 weeks.

Hopefully by mid August I will be back to normal running, but focusing on IM pace rather than bashing out fast 5k's

Honestly... i would forget about pace, cadence, hr and stride length until you are comfortable running without a reaction again, then slowly build up the distance, pace and frequency.
Personally i would continue to ignore hr, cadence, stride length too... but if you really feel you need to i would only really worry about those details once you are back running unhindered....

Last edited by twhat on Thu Jul 13, 2017 12:35 pm; edited 1 time in total

Whenever I return to running after a bit of time off (e.g. a few weeks over Chirstmas), I find my HR is high for gentle stuff. After a week or so back it returns to normal. I don't think it is related to your knee.

Honestly... i would forget about pace, cadence, hr and stride length until you are comfortable running without a reaction again, then slowly build up the distance, pace and frequency.
Personally i would continue to ignore hr, cadence, stride length too... but if you really feel you need to i would only really worry about those details once you are back running unhindered....

Thanks, I tend to be very analytical and data driven, I am using running data as signs that the injury is recovering - the one I am most interested in is stride length, if I my stride is getting longer, is this an indication that the injury is healing? if my stride stays the same or shortens, is this an indication that I am trying to push too much?

Injured mine in early April and only just starting to feel like I am running ok on it.

Absolute nightmare watching a Winter's hard earned run fitness go down the gurgler, then when you can finally run again finding out how hard it is and unfit you are.

Especially as bike and run fitness are both good, just seems odd that a previously 'easy' pace has me blowing out of backside.

You then have to balance your instincts to smash it too quick trying to get that fitness back ASAP (clock is ticking towards IM Italy) and knowing you need to ease back.
_________________2018: IM Wales and Florida. Let the games begin.

It felt crap, - sore, stiff, weak, odd twinges but not same pain as the injury. Needed to ice after every run, it would still swell up a couple of times a week and I could only run on treadmill (outside was still pretty painful).

About 8 weeks after that I can now run OK on a treadmill - almost pain free and putting the odd effort/gradient in and can run slowly outside which still feels a bit awkward, clunky, stiff but progress from 8 weeks earlier.

Another 8 weeks ish until IM Italy so unless I can ramp things up pretty quick it's going to be a long painful run/walk.....

I have entered Florida which gives another 6/7 weeks to play with.

The smart decision would have been to can this season, take a month completely off, then start a slow slow build into an early start for next season. I'm not smart though...._________________2018: IM Wales and Florida. Let the games begin.